Skip to Main Content

ANTC16: The Foundations and Theory of Human Origins

Fall 2023 - Professor Mariam Nargolwalla

Writing Effective Search Strategies

Before you begin, read your research question/assignment. If you have any questions, be sure to ask your instructor or TA before you begin your research.

  Why? How? Example
Step 1: Identify key concepts Key concepts from your research question are the most effective search terms to quickly locate relevant sources. Underline key nouns from your research question. Which factors account for brain expansion in human evolution?
Step 2: Identify alternative search terms To find everything relevant to your topic in a database. Brainstorm alternatives (synonyms, alternative spelling) for your key concepts.

Key concept 1: brain expansion

  • brain size
  • brain weight
  • brain expansion
  • brain development
  • brain evolution

Key concept 2: human evolution

  • human(s)
  • hominin
  • hominid
  • homo sapiens
  • evolve
  • evolving
  • evolution
Step 3: Consider using limiters (available in a library database) In order to focus on articles that are appropriate for your assignment. Choose limiters in a library database that are relevant to your research needs.
  • Scholarly or peer reviewed
  • Format: e.g. newspaper, magazine, scholarly journal
  • Publication date
  • Language
Step 4: Combine your search terms In order to get more focused results, use Boolean operators (and, or) as well as the wildcard* to combine key concepts.

And: Combines key concepts together to find articles that contain both concepts.

Or: Combines alternative search terms to find articles that contain either/any concept.

Wildcard*: Finds variations in spelling, prefixes, and suffixes (revers* will find reverse, reversal, reversing, etc.)

Quotation marks: searches for word or phrase as a unit (preserves word order)

("brain expansion" OR "brain size" OR "brain weight" OR "brain development")

AND

(human* OR "homo sapiens" OR hominin OR hominid)

AND

(evolv* OR evolution)
Step 5: Review your search results Check if articles are appropriate for your assignment to ensure you find the right information to write a high quality paper.

Check if you articles are:

  • Relevant to your topic and discipline
  • Popular or scholarly (depending on whether you're working on the first or second annotation assignment)
  • Current enough (publication year)
  
Step 6: Adjust your strategy If you don't find relevant articles, change your search strategy.

Too few articles? Try...

  • Adding more synonyms or related terms (combine with OR)
  • Deleting the least relevant term from your search
  • Using the wildcard*

Too many articles? Try...

  • Focusing on a specific component of the topic
  • Adding more keywords (combine with AND)

Too few articles: instead of searching for specific phrases like "brain expansion," search for the general term brain to retrieve more results.

Too many articles: try focusing on a specific aspect of brain expansion (e.g. brain weight). 

Adapted from The University of Manchester Library: Making Your Search Work (Cheat Sheet)

Search Strategy Tutorials

Choosing Keywords

Transcript (PDF)

Boolean Operators

Transcript (PDF)

Boolean Modifiers

Transcript (PDF)